While I was browsing through my big collection of articles and images about the abuses of human rights and the denigrating Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians, I noticed this image which should go all around the world as symbol of dehumanization.

International Promotion of Antisemitism!

by Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, English Translation by Milena Rampoldi

IDF-cruelties contribute to Antisemitism

When looking at this picture of 2016, taken in the illegally occupied Hebron, we have to ask ourselves what is going on in the heads of such soldiers. For me, the Nehal and Golani brigades which are known for their cruelty are the example of an inhibited desire to kill. They gloat over the misery and helplessness of their victims, the occupied Palestinians.

“Antisemitism” detracts from the crimes of the “Jewish States”

There are hundreds of pictures like this, but in the German “leading media” they are never shown. This is obvious as our leading media have been “leading” us into a certain political direction for decades now.

Human shields

It is also not openly reported that since the beginning of the illegal occupation of Palestine in 1967 the IDF has been using Palestinians as human shields to make risky action as safe as possible for the IDF soldiers. (2)

All these cruelties of the “most moral” of all “defence” armies of the world contribute to increasing Antisemitism. While looking at such pictures, every compassionate person asks itself how a state founded after the holocaust, constantly manipulating the holocaust, calling itself the “unique” democracy in the Middle East, and considering itself as “light of peoples”, can do such a dark occupation politics. How many innocent Palestinian women, children, and old people did die because of it? Since 2002, these tactics have been part of official military politics. There is nothing “funnier” for the occupation soldier than humiliating a helpless, frightened Palestinian.

All this is only possible because German and US politics consequently stand for this “Jewish State” and support its occupation crimes with arms deliveries and speeches of solidarity.

The totalitarian nature of Zionism

In Germany, the totalitarian nature of Zionism, based on the Judaization as reason of state, is supported by politicians of all parties. How can you defend the “right for existence” of an occupiers’ state, with an invented slogan of Hasbara ideologists, who constantly create flowery terms and metaphors for their illegal occupation crimes. The State of Israel is still without constitution and clear borders. It is continuously expanding by stealing Palestinian land.

All know about these crimes against international law, and the “Jewish State” is allowed a free hand to do whatever. How can it be that there are still people supporting this occupiers’ state? So, there are only people who are philosemites or Muslim haters.

Antisemitism caused by the Israel lobby

At the moment, the Israel lobby and its propaganda make of anti-Semitism one of the main problems in Germany and diffuse it in the main international media. However, the sad reality is another: While the number of arsons against mosques and refugee homes is increasing, Antisemitism is retreating.

Daily there are discussions about the nomination of a representative for Antisemitism on a regional and over-regional level in parliaments and the Bundestag, while the future “homeland minister of interior” Seehofer has already presented the more than dubious “master plan”, dreaming of expulsions, and offensively opposing to Muslim perpetuators and “potential attackers”. We have to ask who the real perpetuators and “potential attackers” are. How should this be decided, and who should decide? Perhaps in the near future the “steel helmet Jew” Wolffsohn, who has always been next to the CSU party, will become Bavarian minister of culture, or perhaps “IM Victoria” Anetta Kahane of the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung will search for “potential aggressors”, and H.M. Broder will play the role of the Antisemites’ inquisitor. Also, Volker Beck needs a new job, after having being refused as competent person for matters related to Antisemitism.

Deportation as “proven mean” with deterrent effect

While times are getting worse and worse for Muslims in Germany, Israel friends can be happy. The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany fuels prejudices against Muslim immigrants by repeating all the time that these visits to the concentration camps are a must (!) because Muslims have to internalize German history and recognise the right for existence of the “Jewish State” to avoid to be deported as Antisemites. It is disgusting that Schuster and political officials support this kind of deportation as “proven mean” with deterrent effect.

Of course, the “Jewish State” and its supporters do whatever to distract from the crimes in the Jewish occupiers’ state by talking about the so called “Anti-Semitism”. However, the truth cannot be hidden for ever, even if there is nothing Zionists fear more than the truth.

80 years from the “Crystal Night”

While synagogues, Jewish institutions and officials are protected, the protection of mosques and refugee homes does not suffice. And here immediate action is required because the situation is deteriorating. We have already noticed the negative results of islamophobia and the continuous rabble-rousing against Muslims. 80 years after the so called “Kristallnacht” today, after the synagogues, mosques are burning. It might sound like a provocation: however, actual Muslims are the past Jews. Fortunately, we have not reached the situation of Nazi Germany, but there are Nazi voices and populists around using the same demagogic slogans against Muslim citizens. In the media and with our politicians of all parties constantly opposing to Turkey, Iran, and Russia we notice how quickly moods are created. One and the same media and politicians sweep the crimes committed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or the “Jewish State” under the philosemite carpet.

After that the Social Party has just ditched the only foreign minister candidate loved by the voters (although he was closed to the Israel lobby?), Heiko Maas will be his follower. He is the one who held a more than dubious conference with his Israeli colleague Ayaled Shaked with her internalised hatred against Palestinians she compared with snakes. His actual partner, the actress Natalia Wörner, has already played her role in diplomacy at the time when Steinmeier was foreign minister. Are these good perspectives for Palestine?

Israel is an “Apartheid State”

In this context, the “steel helmet Jew” Wolffsohn even wrote an inflammatory article against foreign minister Gabriel. In this article, you formally feel the hatred of the Israel lobby and its representatives who are all happy to have ditched Gabriel who was right when he called the “Jewish State” an “Apartheid State” and affirmed that it is a lie that “Arabs” have their full civil rights in Israel! The existence of the “Jewish State” is engendered by its own behaviour! In contrast to Wolffsohn, Gabriel has a pragmatic and supporting position towards Iran, Turkey, and Russia, trying to achieve normalised relations. If Wolffsohn calls Gabriel “Hamas Poster Boy”, should we call himself “figurehead of the Israeli war ministry”? The insinuation that Gabriel has deserved an “above-average” consultancy contract with the mullahs or President Erdogan is packed with wickedness. For sure this “steel helmet Jew” and passionate Israel expert is paid for his articles! It is a good thing that this more than controversial “Bundeswehr university professor” has been given his emeritus status and cannot poison other students! (3)

However, Gabriel has left a positive heritage: the German support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is guaranteed. So, Maas is confronted by the fait accompli that the Federal Government will continue the payment of 80 million of the year 2017.

In the end, it is also a German obligation to offer financial support to the people displaced because of the Nakba. The UN resolution 194 has not been implemented yet, and these people are still not granted their legal right to return to their homeland Palestine.

The recognition of the “right for existence” of Palestinian refugees

However, the director of the charity organisation Wadi is right when he says that this kind of refugee aid is co-responsible for Palestinian suffering. Instead of forcing the “Jewish State” to recognise the right for existence of Palestinian refugees and displaced people, the sad existence without rights of Palestinian refugees in the refugee camps is maintained. This way, the “Jewish State” finds an “elegant solution” to the problem and leaves the destiny of Palestinians as refugees for life to the hypocrite community of states!

As long as the “most moral” of all defences armies is allowed to oppress, torture, mistreat, and murder Palestinians with impunity, and to dominate them with such a brutality, in a land where the Jewish Israeli are immoral and united in their common hatred against Palestinians and in their blind support of these murderous soldiers, peace will never come to Palestine.

Extrajudicial executions, forced confessions, and blackmails are sadly part of daily life. In addition, there is the eternal blockade of the concentration camp in Gaza which will soon be an inhabitable strip of misery under perennial control, with an extremely high suicide rate. These “defence soldiers” are very good at concealing and deceiving, when it is about reversing the body of evidence which may charge the army.

Palestinians are the perpetuators and terrorists when they oppose to the illegal occupation. The “most moral” of all soldiers are always cooperative victims “defending” themselves from the “terrorists”!

The sympathy of the inhabitants of the “Jewish State” and its supporters is limited to their own interests. While Palestinian citizens are isolated and ghettoised in the “Jewish Apartheid State” and hold like prisoners in the occupied territories, no empathy can be developed, and this is exactly the goal of the hasbara.

Without any doubts, the politics of the “Jewish State” promote Antisemitism because as long as basic rights and values are denied, and the deep contempt of Jewish citizens against Palestinians is maintained, and finds its “expression” in occupation crimes, every German citizen and in particular every German Jew should ask herself/himself how much she/he contributes to the alleged increase of Antisemitism. Jewish citizens should not be surprised if they lose sympathy because instead of dissociating from the occupation crimes, they express their solidarity with the “Jewish State” by carrying the “David Star flag” for it.

Since the beginning of this year, almost every day innocent Palestinians, also young people, have been murdered by IDF soldiers. And all is hushed up. Why do Jewish women in Germany not engage for the liberation of Ahed Tamimi as US women in New York do during the international Women’s Day? (4)

As long as criticising and clearly talking about human rights violations in the “Jewish State” remain taboo, and it is forbidden to openly say that Israel should not be supported by Germany, and as long as Israel criticism, Antizionism, and BDS support are put on a level to avoid them, and as long as Jewish Israel reviewers are denied to hold a public speech in Germany, Germany will sink in a philosemite Antisemitism, led by the state.

The sad and informative interview with Ilan Pappe in 2016 leaves us in no doubt that Israel wants all but peace. Neither the one-state nor the two-state solution is an option for the colonialist occupiers. For Ilan Pappe what we have to support is a democratic state for all its citizens, even if we are far away from it. (5)

We have to diffuse pictures like the one of this article to show the world communities what really promotes international Antisemitism.

This video shows an Israeli soldier firing at Palestinian youths who are running away across a field. One of them, a 17-year-old boy, is hit and falls down. The Israeli soldier then strikes the boy on the head with the barrel of a gun as he lies on the ground, causing serious, potentially life-threatening injuries.

Israeli soldier shoots, beats fleeing teen

The youth, identified only as D.T. by the human rights group B’Tselem, suffered a fractured skull, bleeding inside his skull, a fractured rib and a bruised left lung. He required surgery and a prolonged stay in hospital where he was unconscious for five days.

B’Tselem said that the conduct of Israeli occupation forces in this incident “is particularly grave.”

The shooting took place on 10 March, in the occupied West Bank village of Silwad, where youths had earlier been responding to the incursions of Israeli occupation forces by throwing stones.

Shot while running away

Video of the incident, captured by the security cameras of a local gas station, was published this week by B’Tselem.

“A Border Police officer fired a sponge bullet at D.T., who was running away from him and posed no danger to anyone,” wrote B’Tselem. “Then, with D.T. lying on the ground, wounded and helpless, the officer hit him with the barrel of his gun, fracturing his skull and knocking him unconscious.”

Along with live rounds designed to kill, Israel employs a number of supposedly “less lethal” weapons to suppress protest against its military occupation, including, 22-caliber rifles, rubber-coated metal bullets and foam-tipped or sponge bullets, which are composed of an aluminum base and a dense foam nose.

Parents barred from visiting

B’Tselem said that it took another 15 minutes for the occupation forces to evacuate the boy to hospital “where he underwent head surgery” and was “treated as a dangerous prisoner, guarded round-the-clock by security personnel who prevented his parents from going near him.”

Israeli occupation authorities only gave his parents permits to go and see him for the first few days of his hospital stay and then cited “security” to ban his father altogether. During this traumatic period, the boy’s parents were not allowed to enter his room and could only look at him through a window.

Through all of this, according to B’Tselem, “D.T., a 17-year-old boy, remained in hospital completely alone, away from his home and family and restrained to the bed for part of the time.”

Routine violence and impunity

B’Tselem added: “While this account may be shocking, it is not all that uncommon: Firing unlawfully at a fleeing Palestinian youth, who posed no danger to anyone, and hitting him hard on the head – actions that could have resulted in disability or death; followed by disgraceful conduct during hospitalization in Israel, including placing restraints on an injured teenager and denying family visits are not a rare occurrence.”

In January this year, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Qusay al-Amour, 17, in Tuqu, a village near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Video from the scene shows Israeli soldiers violently dragging away the boy after he was shot.

And in April 2016, the Israeli army closed an investigation into Yisrael Shomer, a commander of its Binyamin Brigade, who in 2015 shot to death 17-year-old Muhammad al-Kasbeh while the Palestinian teenager was fleeing. The Israeli army decided that Shomer’s videotaped slaying of al-Kasbeh had been nothing more than “a professional mistake.”

B’Tselem described the closure of the case as “an integral part of the whitewash mechanism which is Israel’s military investigative system.”

The following month, B’Tselem announced it had stopped cooperating with the Israeli army unit that is supposed to investigate such abuses. The group said it no longer wanted to be a “fig leaf” for a system that guarantees impunity for perpetrators.

In the rare cases where an Israeli perpetrator is brought to trial, the penalty is normally a slap on the wrist.

B’Tselem reaffirmed in the case of D.T. that typically no one is held accountable, “guaranteeing that incidents of this sort will continue so long as the occupation does.”

An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced Elor Azaria to 18 months in prison, one-year probation and a demotion of his military rank, a month after the Israeli soldier was found guilty of manslaughter.

Azaria shot and killed Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif in March after al-Sharif had already been shot and injured following an alleged attempted stabbing attack in Hebron.

Following the court’s sentencing, Azaria’s defense vowed to appeal the ruling, while several high-ranking Israeli politicians called for a pardon in his case.

The main evidence in the case was footage caught on camera by Imad Abu Shamsiya, a Palestinian resident of Hebron who had been provided a camera by Human Rights Defenders specifically to document instances such as the shooting and other human rights violations in Hebron.

Abu Shamsiya told Mondoweiss he is grateful he was around to film the incident, because without the camera footage he feels certain Azaria would never have been taken to court, let alone serve time in prison.

“If there was no one filming that day then this crime, just like other crimes like it that happen against Palestinians on a daily basis, would go unnoticed,” Abu Shamsiya said. “I am so grateful for the camera, and so grateful I was in the right place at the right time.”

While Shamsiya is happy the world got to see what happened on that day in March, he does not feel like justice was served.

“There is no justice for the family,” Abu Shamsiya said. “They lost a member of their family in a very brutal way, this 18-month sentence is not justice for the family, for the Palestinian people or our nation — no one got justice from this.”

Sahar Francis, the director of Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ rights NGO, criticized the sentencing, telling Mondoweiss that an 18-month sentence for an “extrajudicial execution” of a Palestinian “brings to light the policy of impunity and lack of accountability in a system of protracted Israeli military occupation.”

“The period of sentencing is similar to sentencing routinely given to Palestinians for ‘membership in an illegal organization’ – with all Palestinian political parties deemed illegal through various military orders,” Francis said. “The message this sends to other soldiers and police officers who extrajudicially execute Palestinians is that their actions will not be seriously accounted for and that impunity will persist.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli right has lauded Azaria as a hero who killed a Palestinian terrorist, attacking the Israeli military and the Israeli justice system for allowing the case to go forward, while calling for Azaria’s pardon.According to Israeli daily Haaretz, judges said Azaria acted with the intent to kill, outside of Israeli military protocol, which requires a threat to life before live fire can be used. The judge also said the severity of the shooting and backlash it caused to the Israeli military was mitigated since the shooting happened during an active combat situation.

After Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter January, Ido Zelkovitz, head of the Middle East studies department at Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel and senior researcher at the University of Haifa told Mondoweiss that both sides of the Israeli political spectrum agreed on one thing — Azaria shot a terrorists in their eyes — which in the end, he said would indeed lead to a pardon after Azaria serves a small part of his sentence.

“Even if he was unarmed and he couldn’t put anyone in danger, the common idea among all the Israeli camps is that Azaria shot a terrorist and there is no debate about that question — it is a mutual understanding. That is why in the future the pardon will be accepted,” Zelkovitz said.

Abu Shamsiya agreed, telling Mondoweiss that he would be shocked if Azaria was actually made to serve his full sentence.

“Of course he won’t be made to serve his full sentence — the sentence is a joke, not justice, it’s 18 months in prison for murder,” Abu Shamsiya said. “Not only do I doubt he will even serve a full prison sentence, I doubt he will be put on any kind of probation or be demoted in the military.”

“This case shows us the injustice of the Israeli government,” he added. “This was just a show for the world to see because this execution was filmed, so the government felt it had to do something.”

Palestinian was on way to chemotherapy when shot by soldiers

Muhammad Amar Jallad was being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his family told Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy. Jallad was reported to have died in an Israeli hospital where he was being treated for his injuries last week.

The Israeli army claimed that Jallad was attempting to attack soldiers with a screwdriver when he was shot in the northern West Bank village of Huwwara on 9 November.

A witness told the Ma’an News Agency that he saw Jallad “attempting to cross the road in Huwwara before being shot at by an Israeli soldier who then took out a knife and threw it next to the youth.”

Shot while running across road

Jallad’s father told Haaretz that his son had set out from their home in Tulkarem that morning for the nearby city of Nablus, where he was being treated at the An-Najah National University Hospital.

When Jallad realized he had mistakenly boarded a shared taxi heading to Ramallah, rather than Nablus, Levy reported, “The driver suggested that he get off at Huwwara junction, next to the checkpoint of that name, where he would be able to pick up the taxi to Nablus.”

Jallad exited the vehicle and began to cross the road.

“He did so on the run,” according to Levy. “On the other side was an [Israeli army] jeep and a few soldiers, who were guarding the busy junction. The soldiers apparently thought that he was out to attack them.”

Jallad was shot with one bullet to the stomach as he reached the middle of the road, Haaretz recounted. A Palestinian ambulance crew happened to drive by and attempted to evacuate Jallad, but Israeli forces prevented them from doing so.

He was eventually evacuated in an Israeli ambulance and taken to a hospital.

During the months of hospitalization before his death, Jallad was put under the custody of an Israeli military court. His family were kept in the dark about his condition and were prevented from seeing him.

Jallad’s father was denied a permit to enter Israel and though his mother was issued a permit on four occasions, only once was she allowed to enter her son’s hospital room.

The family looked up one of his doctors online and called him last Friday. It was only then that Jallad’s family learned that he had died, they told Haaretz. They still have not been informed of the date and cause of his death.

Israel transferred Jallad’s body to his family on 17 February. The Ma’an News Agency reported that his body will be examined in the presence of Palestinian legal officials before being buried on Saturday.

Israel has withheld the remains of dozens of Palestinians slain during alleged and actual attacks since late 2015.

Earlier this month, Israel transferred the body of Muhammad Zeidan, a 16-year-old who was shot and killed by a private security guard at a Jerusalem-area checkpoint in late November.

Medical neglect of child prisoner

The health of a Palestinian child with leukemia who is being held in an Israeli military detention center has “seriously deteriorated,” a lawyer with the Palestinian Authority committee on prisoners’ affairs stated this week.

Al-Kharroubi was hiding behind a low wall and “apparently attempted to throw stones at Border Police officers and soldiers” at a roadblock some 80 to 100 meters away from him when he was hit with a live bullet, according to B’Tselem.

Al-Kharroubi, who was shot in the neck, was evacuated to a hospital but was declared dead upon arrival.

B’Tselem stated that “no incendiary device” was thrown at soldiers from the area where al-Kharroubi was positioned. Given the distance the unarmed youths were from the soldiers, “they could not pose any danger,” the group added.

B’Tselem also stated that the punitive sealing of the home was an illegal act of collective punishment that “that led to the pointless death of this young man.”

Israeli soldiers raid house looking for 8-year-old

This video shows Israeli occupation forces raiding the home of Karam Maswadeh in the West Bank city of Hebron.

It was filmed on 10 August by an international volunteer and published by the human rights group B’Tselem on Monday.

Combatants from the Israeli Border Police enter the house and demand the whereabouts of Maswadeh’s son. Unable to find the child, the soldiers seize two other boys, aged 11 and 12.

The boys are then marched over to a checkpoint where an Israeli settler armed with a rifle is waiting with his son.

The Border Police commander asks the settler and his son if they recognize the Palestinian boys. When they say they do not, the boys are released.

According to B’Tselem, occupation forces later picked up three other Palestinian children, aged 8, 11 and 13, and repeated the same procedure.

This was in connection with a fight that reportedly took place earlier that day between Palestinian children and Israeli settlers.

“Fights between Palestinian and settler children are commonplace in downtown Hebron, where Israel imposes a regime of segregation, causing systematic and extensive harm to the Palestinian population,” B’Tselem states.

In July, an Israeli soldier was filmed assaulting a Palestinian girl and confiscating her bicycle apparently because she was playing on a street that Israel has designated for the exclusive use of Jews.

According to Maswadeh’s testimony to B’Tselem, the Israeli soldiers later came back to his house at 2am to arrest his 8-year-old son. The father and son were then driven to the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba where occupation forces wanted to interrogate the boy without his father present. Maswadeh said he refused.

“The video footage – showing Israeli security forces working in the service of the Hebron settlers and launching a night-time raid to locate an 8-year-old boy – highlights the disregard shown by Israeli authorities for the legal rights afforded to minors,” B’Tselem states. “Children below the age of criminal responsibility must not be detained for questioning, and certainly not in the middle of the night.”

The group also condemned Israel’s attempt to interrogate Maswadeh’s son without his parents present.

Sharp contrast

B’Tselem adds: “The immense efforts mounted to locate Palestinians suspected of harming settlers contrast sharply with the near absence of action to protect Palestinians from violence by settlers, be they minors or adults, or to uphold the rights of Palestinian children below the age of criminal responsibility.”

Recently, B’Tselem announced it would no longer cooperate with Israeli investigations into attacks by its soldiers and settlers on Palestinians, calling the military law enforcement system a sham.

“As of today,” B’Tselem executive director Hagai El-Ad wrote on 25 May, “we will no longer refer complaints to this system, and we will call on the Palestinian public not to do so either.”

“We will no longer aid a system that whitewashes investigations and serves as a fig leaf for the occupation.”

Abuse of children

The raid into a family home seen in the video above is routine in Hebron, as are night raids.

Harrowing video filmed last year shows Israeli soldiers raiding the bedrooms of Palestinian children in the middle of the night.

After forcing the children – at least one as young as four – out of their beds, the video shows the soldiers in full combat gear, armed with rifles and hand grenades, photographing and interrogating them.

Former Israeli soldiers have revealed that such raids in villages around the West Bank are often part of “mapping missions.”

Armed soldiers surround a Palestinian family’s home in the dead of night. A squad bangs on the front door, waking everyone up. Once inside, the soldiers gather the residents into a single room.

The family’s ID cards are inspected and recorded, as is how everyone is related, and their phone numbers.

These tactics rarely make headlines, but they are part of the fabric of a regime of seemingly permanent Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians.

These kinds of abuses against children prompted 20 members of Congress to write to President Barack Obama earlier this year urging him to hold Israel accountable.

The lawmakers wrote of their “profound concern” regarding Israel’s ongoing abuse of Palestinian children, especially during their arrest, interrogation and imprisonment, adding that “ignoring the trauma being inflicted on millions of Palestinian children undermines our American values.”

When you hear the word ‘Intifada’ you think of a Palestinian uprising ….

Below are videos of the zionist Intifada, where not a stone is thrown, but bullets are in their stead.

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This video of Mustafa Adel Al-Khatib, 17, being shot in the back and killed in the Old City last year.

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On this video of a Palestinian girl being shot at a bus shelter inside the occupation as she holds up a knife in obvious desperation.

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This video obtained by the human rights group B’Tselem a year ago of Muhammad al-Kasba, 17, throwing a rock that broke the windshield of a jeep a brigade commander was riding in. So the commander jumped out of the vehicle and pursued al-Kasba, shooting him 3 times in his upper body and killing him. The beginning of the execution was captured on the video:

Over the past six months, say activists in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military has resumed the use of Indoor Barricade Penetrators, a form of high velocity tear gas 40mm projectile designed to deliver its payload inside buildings or homes and used during raids, demonstrations and clashes.

An Israeli soldier fires tear gas towards Palestinian protesters at Beit El on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah in November 2015. (Shadi Hatem/ APA images)

Deadly gas projectiles return to West Bank protests

Over the past six months, say activists in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military has resumed the use of Indoor Barricade Penetrators, a form of high velocity tear gas 40mm projectile designed to deliver its payload inside buildings or homes and used during raids, demonstrations and clashes.

The use of such heavy duty tear gas projectiles fell by the wayside in 2013 after a number of high-profile court cases demonstrated how easily this particular form of delivery could kill or maim. However, a modified version is now employed across the West Bank, say protestors, and no matter what claims the military and manufacturers may make, these barrier piercing projectiles remain potentially lethal.

Israel has used them to deadly effect before.

In 2009, Bassem Abu Rahmeh was killed during the weekly protest in the West Bank of Bilin, after he was struck in the chest with an Indoor Barricade Penetrator.

Recent injuries

Anderson and Abu Rahmeh are among the best known victims of such attacks: many others sustained injuries.

According to Murad Shtaiwi, head of the popular resistance committee in the village of Kafr Qaddum, there have been three moderate injuries from these projectiles since March alone. Ahmad Nasser, a medic working in the Ramallah district, has noted two injuries at clashes outside Ofer prison in the same time period. Nasser himself was also struck with one of the projectiles, but was not injured since he was wearing a bulletproof kevlar vest.

Indoor Barricade Penetrators are a more dangerous means of using tear gas for several reasons. As the name implies, they are not intended for use directly against individuals, rather they are designed to penetrate doors, windows and interior drywalls, and release their payload inside a building.

US weapons manufacturer Combined Systems, a longstanding supplier of tear gas to the Israeli military, makesspecial note that these “less lethal” weapons are intended for use on doors, windows and wallboard, and operators should take caution to avoid firing them in a way that risks hitting a person.

Like other kinds of tear gas, barrier penetrating projectiles are fired from a grenade launcher; however some models used by the Israeli military also have a secondary propulsion mechanism, which takes them further and faster. And unlike outdoor short range tear gas, it does not disperse gas until after impact. This means that protesters cannot see the trajectory of the projectiles until they are detonated, making them much more dangerous.

Harmful gas

In addition to the dangers posed as a high velocity projectile, activists from Ramallah and Nabi Saleh have also reported that the projectiles are more likely to carry an Oleoresin Capsicum- (OC spray — more commonly known as pepper spray) based gas than the more common, and less harmful, CS- (O-chlorobenzylidene malonitrile) based tear gas.

Manal Tamimi, an organizer in Nabi Saleh, cannot find a lab in the West Bank with the capacity to analyze the different types of tear gas. She told The Electronic Intifada that protesters who were exposed to gas from Indoor Barricade Penetrators exhibited symptoms consistent with OC gas, including immediate loss of motor control.

The renewed use of these tear gas projectiles has had a significant impact on demonstrations. In Kafr Qaddum, which Israeli soldiers raid on a regular basis, houses near the village’s weekly protest route have installed metal shutters to protect their interiors. But this provides little protection against a projectile that can move at 122 meters per second.

In Nabi Saleh, where demonstrators try to walk from the center of the village to a spring located in a nearby valley which Israel has confiscated for settlers, there’s little hope of ever getting close. The military can keep protesters at bay from a cool 500 meters with these tear gas projectiles, according to those who have taken part in the demonstrations.

Their renewed use was first noted in early 2016 by activists in Ramallah and came after a new wave of protest and deadly confrontation between Palestinians and the Israeli military that began in October last year.

Activists in Ramallah started to note the return of these tear gas projectiles during weekly demonstrations in Kafr Qaddum and Nabi Saleh and speculate that the army has chosen to reintroduce them because they serve a dual purpose: like live ammunition, it is long range and potentially deadly, thus keeping protesters farther away from soldiers than almost any other weapon. However, unlike live ammunition, deaths caused by high velocity tear gas can more easily written off as accidents.

The Israeli military declined to comment for this article.

For demonstrators who face these projectiles, the threat is very tangible.

“After the October uprisings, more Palestinians broke the wall of fear inside themselves. They began to take more risks,” said Tamimi. “This prompted the Israelis to find a weapon that will not directly cause death. In the middle of all the chaos … they don’t want more criticism.”

*Clare Maxwell is a journalist and human rights activist working in the Salfit region of the West Bank.

OR ~~~ HOW CAN THE MOST HATEFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD HAVE THE MOST HUMANITARIAN ARMY?

What was no longer is …

Israel finds itself in a dilemma these days …. it wants you to believe that its army is the most humanitarian in the world, but it is a contradiction to their overall policy of hatred.

So, in an attempt to change this image a new chief rabbi was just appointed to the IDF. Following are some of his thoughts …..

It’s OK for a soldier to kill a wounded assailant …

“Suicide bombers who were wounded must be killed.”

“Terrorists should not be treated as human beings, as they are ‘animals,’ and the rule ‘He who is merciful to the cruel eventually would be cruel to the merciful’ applies to them.”

Image by Amos Biderman

It’s OK to rape a non Jewish woman in time of war …

“As part of maintaining fitness for the army and the soldiers’ morale during fighting, it is permitted to “breach” the walls of modesty and “satisfy the evil inclination by lying with attractive Gentile women against their will, out of consideration for the difficulties faced by the soldiers and for overall success.”

On the question of hating thy neighbour …

To continue collecting tourist dollar$, Israel wants you to believe it is the most gay friendly country in the world ….

But here is the reality;

“Gays and lesbians should be treated with love and support, but they are sick or deformed.”

Lethal weapons

Last year, Israel expanded its permission to occupation soldiers to use lethal .22-caliber sniper guns against Palestinian demonstrators.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselemnoted in September that from the start of 2015 three Palestinians had been killed by .22-caliber bullets “during stone-throwing incidents in which members of the security forces were not in mortal danger.”

Israel’s policy of shooting Palestinians with live ammunition in order to suppress anti-occupation protests frequently causes devastating and lifelong injuries even when it does not kill.

Restrictions on the use of live fire to “mortal danger” situations exist only on paper.

“Experience gained through monitoring [.22] use in the West Bank shows that the restrictions placed on using this type of ammunition get eroded over time, and the result is a constant expansion of the [.22] use,” B’Tselem says.

As this video demonstrates, live fire amounts to an enjoyable blood sport for the Israelis charged with enforcing the occupation.

A video has emerged apparently showing an Israeli soldier dropping a knife on the ground and forcing a terrified Palestinian girl to pick it up before she is arrested.

The was video circulated widely in Palestinian media and on social networks on Tuesday, the same day that two more Palestinian teenagers were shot dead by Israeli occupation forces, who claimed that the youths had attempted to carry out stabbings.

Forced to pick up knife

The Palestinian news outlet Donia Al-Watan said the video was recorded by a Palestinian who witnessed the incident at an Israeli military checkpoint south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

Several outlets identified the girl in the video as 14-year-old Sabreen Mujahid Sanad.

The 3-minute video appears to have been filmed from a vehicle stopped at the checkpoint. At the beginning, a man in civilian clothes can be seen speaking to the girl next to a white truck. Israeli soldiers are standing nearby and giving orders to others.

The girl is not restrained by the soldiers and walks toward the cab of the white truck. At 1:30, one of the soldiers throws what appears to be a knife onto the ground.

The girl, with her arms raised near her chest, trembles. The soldier then appears to order her to bend down and pick up the knife.

She kneels down and picks it up, and then appears to talk to the soldier as she holds it. As she kneels, a second soldier aims his weapon at her.

A third soldier then approaches and leads her away with her hands behind her back.

Palestinian teen shot in Hebron by Israeli forces dies from injuries

A Palestinian teenager shot by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in Hebron died from her injuries on Tuesday, Israeli medical sources said.

The teenager, identified as 18-year-old Hadeel al-Hashlamon, was shot three times by Israeli soldiers after allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack, Israel’s army said.

A spokesperson for the Shaare Zedek Medical Center where she was taken for treatment said the teenager was “terribly injured, and underwent surgery upon her arrival.

“She later died from her injuries, the spokesperson confirmed.

No Israeli soldiers were injured during the incident, and the Israeli army did not release photographs of a knife, as they have done on several other recent occasions.

The army spokeswoman said that the attack had been “thwarted.”

A local activist group Youth Against Settlements later released what it said were photos of the incident, appearing to show Israeli soldiers aiming their weapons at the woman, as first she faced them and afterward turned away from them.

Another photo appeared to show the woman slumped on the street, after she was shot and wounded.

Video footage from Palestinian news agency PalMedia showed al-Hashlamon left bleeding on the pavement, reportedly for up to 30 minutes before she received treatment.

The footage shows the woman being dragged out of camera frame, while soldiers and heavily armed settlers look on.

Al-Hashlamon’s death marks at least 25 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the start of 2015, according to UN documentation, not including Palestinian deaths caused by Israeli settlers.

Every Israeli has seen this footage many times by now. It has been shown again and again by all Israeli TV stations. Many millions around the world have seen it on their local TV. It is making the rounds in the social media.

Israeli soldiers shoot guns, Palestinians shoot pictures

A frightened Palestinian boy vs the ugly face of the Israeli occupation

By Uri Avneri

The misdeeds of Napoleon’s occupation army in Spain were not photographed. Photography had not yet been invented. The valiant fighters against the occupation had to rely on Francisco Goya for the immortal painting of the resistance.

The partisans and underground fighters against the German occupation of their countries in World War II had no time to take pictures. Even the heroic uprising of the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw was not filmed by the participants. The Germans themselves filmed their atrocities, and, being Germans, they catalogued and filed them in an orderly way.

“Soldiers shoot with guns. The Palestinians shoot pictures”

In the meantime, photography has become common commonplace. The Israeli occupation in the occupied Palestinian territories is being filmed all the time. Everybody now has cellular phones that take pictures. Also, Israeli peace organisations have distributed cameras to many Arab inhabitants.

Soldiers shoot with guns. The Palestinians shoot pictures.

It is not yet clear which are more effective in the long run: the bullets or the photos.

A test case is a short clip taken recently in a remote West Bank village called Al-Nabi Saleh.

Every Israeli has seen this footage many times by now. It has been shown again and again by all Israeli TV stations. Many millions around the world have seen it on their local TV. It is making the rounds in the social media.

The clip shows an incident that occurred near the village on Friday, two weeks ago. Nothing very special. Nothing terrible. Just a routine event. But the pictures are unforgettable.

The village Al-Nabi Saleh is located not far from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. It is named in honour of a prophet (Nabi means prophet in both Arabic and Hebrew) who lived before the time of Muhammad and is said to be buried there. His extensive tomb is the pride of the 550 inhabitants.

Al-Nabi Saleh is build on the remains of a crusader outpost, which in its turn was built on the remains of a Byzantine village. Its history probably goes back to ancient Canaanite times. I believe that the population of these villages has never changed – they just changed their religion and culture according to the powers that be. They were in turn Canaanites, Judaeans, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and finally Arabs.

The latest occupation (until now) is the Israeli. These new occupiers have no interest in converting the locals. They just want to take their land, and, if possible, induce them to go away. On part of the lands of Nabi Saleh an Israeli settlement called Halamish (“flint”) was set up.

The conflict between the village and its new “neighbours” started immediately. Between them is an ancient well, which the settlers have renovated and claim as their own. The village is not ready to give it up.

Like in many other villages in the area, such as Bil’in, on every Friday, right after the prayers in the mosque, a demonstration against the occupation and the settlers takes place. A few Israeli peace activists and international volunteers take part in them. The demonstrators are generally non-violent, but on the fringes teenagers and children often throw stones. The soldiers shoot rubber-covered steel bullets, tear gas and stun grenades, and sometime live bullets.

As in many small Arab villages, most inhabitants belong to one extended family, in this case the Tamimis. One Tamimi boy was shot dead in one of the demonstrations, a girl was shot in the foot. It is a Tamimi boy who features in the recent event.

“The clip that rocked the world”

The clip that rocked the world starts with one lone soldier, who was obviously sent to arrest a boy who had (or had not) thrown a stone.

The soldiers jumps across the rocky terrain, looks for the boy who is hiding behind a rock and catches him. It is 12-year-old Muhammad Tamimi, with one arm in a plaster cast.

The soldier puts his arm around the neck of the boy, who cries in terror. Soon his 14-year-old sister appears, and soon after that his mother and other women. They all tear at the soldier, who tries to push them away with his other arm. During the wild struggle, the sister bites the arm of the soldier, the one which holds his gun.

The soldier is masked. This is a new thing. Why are they masked? What are they hiding? After all, they are not Russian policemen who fear the revenge of the gangsters. When I was a soldier, long ago, masks were unknown.

During the melee, one of the women succeeds in ripping the soldier’s mask off. We see his face – just an ordinary young man, recently out of high school, who is obviously at a loss of what to do. There seem to be photographers all around. One sees their feet.

Would the soldier have used his gun if the photographers had not been there? Hard to say. Recently a brigade commander shot and killed a boy who had thrown a stone at his car. The army condones and even lauds such acts of “self-defence”.

For some minutes the scene goes on – the boy crying and pleading, the women pushing and hitting, the soldier pushing back, everybody shouting. Then another soldier approaches and tells the first soldier to release the child, who is seen running away.

We don’t know who the soldier is. It is hard to guess his background. Just a soldier, one of many who enforce the occupation, who face the demonstrations every week.

Another angle to the event is provided by one of the protesters off camera, so to speak, who was caught for a fleeting moment. He was recognised.

He is a teacher who bears the names of two illustrious persons – the Zionist founder Theodor Herzl and the composer Franz Schubert. Herzl Schubert is a veteran left-wing peace activist. I have met him in many demonstrations.

On the morrow of the showing of the footage on all Israeli television stations, the cry went up to dismiss him. What, a leftist peace demonstrator in the schoolroom?

Zionist McCarthyism

Schubert was not accused of preaching his opinions in class. His peace activities did not take place during working hours. The very fact that he took part in a demonstration in his own free time was enough. His case is now “being considered” by the Education Ministry.

This, by the way, is no exceptional case. A respected female educator who was chosen as headmistress of an art school was blocked upon the discovery that many years ago she had signed a petition calling on the army to allow soldiers to refuse service in the occupied territories. The petition did not call for refusal but only respect for the moral decision of the refusers. That is enough. The ministry, now led by a nationalist-religious demagogue, promised “to consider the matter”.

These cases of a new McCarthyism concern, of course, only leftists. No one demands the dismissal of the rabbi who prohibits the selling or renting of apartments to Arabs. Or the rabbi who wrote that under certain conditions it is permissible to kill non-Jews, including children. Their salaries are paid by the state.

Many millions around the world must by now have seen the Nabi Saleh footage. It is impossible to assess the extent of the damage.

It is not that this clip is especially revolting. Nothing terrible happens. It is the face of the occupation, the present face of Israel, that imprints itself on the minds of the viewers.

For many years now, almost all news footage coming out of Israel has concerned the deeds and misdeeds of the occupation. Gone and forgotten is the face of Israel as the progressive state created by the victims of the most hideous mass crime in modern history. The state of pioneers who “made the desert bloom”. The bastion of freedom and democracy in a turbulent region.

That picture has long been wiped out. The Israel that presents itself to the world now is a state of occupiers, of oppressors, of brutal colonisers, of soldiers armed to the teeth who arrest people in the middle of the night and persecute them during the day.

This face changes the perception of Israel throughout the world. Every TV clip and news item adds imperceptibly to this change. The attitude of ordinary people around the world, also including Jews, is changed. The damage is lasting and probably irremediable.

The terrified face of young Muhammad Tamimi may well haunt us for a long time to come.

Mohammed Tamimi, 11 years old, rests his head on his mother’s lap at their home in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah, on August 29, 2015. (AFP/Abbas Momani)

Video of Israeli soldier arresting boy is latest in war of perception

NABI SALEH (AFP) — A soldier pins a boy down and is assaulted by his family: The scene might have gone unnoticed if not for footage that has turned it into another weapon in the Israel-Palestinian war of perception.

Palestinians see it as proof of Israel’s abuses in the occupied West Bank, while many Israelis say the soldier fell into a media trap laid by activists.

The incident played out on Friday in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh and footage of it has since gone viral, generating a bitter debate both online and off.

As is often the case when it comes to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, there has been little room for middle ground.

The video and pictures, including those taken by AFP, show a masked Israeli soldier trying to arrest an 11-year-old boy who has a cast on his left arm.

According to the Israeli military, the boy was suspected of having thrown stones during a protest.

As the soldier holds him against a rock, his automatic rifle at his side, members of the boy’s family, including his mother and sister, along with other activists rush over and try to pull him off the child.

A wrestling match ensues, with the soldier’s ski mask pulled off and the boy’s sister biting the soldier on the hand. The soldier yells for help, and eventually a superior officer arrives and orders him to let the boy go.

While walking away, visibly frustrated, the soldier throws down a stun grenade.

The images quickly made the rounds.

Palestinian papers reproduced a cartoon showing the soldier with a dog’s head, while some in Israel saw the decision not to arrest the boy as a sign of weakness.

Left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz, referring to the headlock the soldier had put the boy in, lamented the situation in which the military has found itself in the West Bank.

“It’s a national headlock in which an entire army, and behind it a nation, remains in a state of denial that there are military solutions to the conflict,” it said.

An Israeli soldier pins down 11-year-old Mohammed Tamimi following a march on August 28, 2015 in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah. (AFP/Abbas Momani)

‘I wasn’t afraid’

Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, has for years been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Each Friday, Palestinians, foreigners and even Israelis protest against the expansion of the nearby Halamish settlement. Stones are typically thrown by the protesters, while tear gas and rubber bullets are fired by Israeli forces.In the past three years, two people have died and 375 been injured, with nearly half of them minors, according to protesters.

According to his father, the child in the video, Mohammed Tamimi, broke his wrist while fleeing an Israeli tank in his village, which was why he was wearing a cast.

“I wasn’t afraid,” the boy told AFP, “but I cried to call my family to come get me away from the soldier.”His mother Nariman said she thought “only one thing: free my son from the soldier’s hands.”

The Tamimi family has been at the forefront of the protests in Nabi Saleh. The father, Bassem, said he has been arrested nine times.

Ahed, the boy’s teenage sister wearing a Tweety Bird shirt in the video, is known to some for older photos showing her raising her fist at Israeli soldiers. It resulted in her being received by then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2012.

Some Israelis have accused the family of being agitators who put their children in danger.

An Israeli officer familiar with the situation called Friday’s protest a “PR stunt” where demonstrators “try to provoke soldiers by hurling stones at them that can be deadly,” forcing them to react.

Arnon, the soldier’s father, told Israeli journalists that he regretted that his son’s restraint was not being given more praise.

The Haaretz analysis however sought to put the episode into context.

“No amount of PR and media management will make the occupation of another nation look good,” it said.

LONDON – Two of Britain’s leading newspapers have changed their coverage of a violent clash between an IDF soldier and Palestinian women and children after claims arose that the family involved in the incident, and particularly a blonde girl photographed biting the soldier, are known provocateurs.

On Friday, an IDF soldier trying to arrest a stone-throwing 13-year-old Palestinian boy drew international outrage after he was documented in a violent clash with Palestinian women and children.

Members of the Tamimi family, prominent Palestinian activists, physically attacked the soldier in an attempt to free son Muhammad Tamini, whose hand was in a cast.

According to the UK Media Watch, a pro-Israel website monitoring coverage of Israel in the British press, the girl who appears in the photos biting the soldier is Ahed Tamini, the daughter of Narimen and Bassem Tamini, who is known among Israeli supporters online as “Shirley Temper.”

The blonde-haired girl became a symbol of the Palestinian resistance in international media and is often documented in confrontations with Israeli soldiers. Muhammad Tamini is her brother.

The website quoted Tamar Sternthal from CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) who said that the Palestinian village of Nebi Salah, where the incident occurred, is “where photographers gather every Friday to document repetitious scenes of Palestinian residents and international activists clashing with Israeli soldiers.” The site noted this was where “activists often place their children in danger to score propaganda points.”

The UK Media Watch said major newspapers like The Daily Mail and The Telegraph realized the incident was staged by the Palestinians in order to cause provocation.

The Daily Mail’s original headline read: “Extraordinary moment that desperate Palestinian women fought and BIT an Israeli soldier after he put boy with a broken arm in a headlock at gunpoint.”

Later, however, the story was edited and given a different headline: “Questions raised over shocking West Bank image of boy with a broken arm being held at gunpoint by an Israeli soldier after girl, 13, seen biting attacker is revealed as prolific ‘Pallywood star.'”

According to UK Media Watch, “the term ‘Pallywood’ refers to the staging of scenes by Palestinian journalists in order to present the Palestinians as hapless victims of Israeli aggression.”

The British Telegraph initially ran the story with the headline “Palestinian women wrestle Israeli soldier off injured small boy.”

Later, however, the story was removed entirely from the Telegraph’s website.

Leading British newspapers The Times of London and The Guardian did not cover the story at all, while the UK Media Watch said Channel 4 News, The Independent and the Daily Mirror – a tabloid – reported it “and largely followed the Pallywood script (the latter going with the headline ‘West Bank Freedom Biter’).”

This video shows several women preventing an Israeli soldier from abducting a Palestinian child in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

The footage, shot by Bilal Tamimi, shows a masked soldier assaulting a child whose arm is in a cast.

Palestinians intervene to prevent the abduction of a Palestinian boy by an Israeli soldier during a protest against Israeli colonization in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, 28 August. (Shadi Hatem APA images)

NGO accuses Israel of systematic abuse of Palestinian kids

A West Bank-based children’s rights group on Wednesday accused Israeli security forces of widespread abuse of Palestinian minors in the West Bank.

The IDF swiftly denied the allegations, outlined in a report by a group called Military Court Watch (MCW).

The study estimates that since Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, “up to 95,000 children” have been detained by Israeli forces in the territory.

The report, submitted to the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, looks at 200 cases in which minors were detained since 2013.

In its conclusion, MCW found that in spite of recent developments in the military detention system, “ill-treatment is still widespread, systematic and institutionalized.”

Citing the testimonies, it said 187 of them had their hands bound during the first 24 hours of arrest, 165 said they were blindfolded and 124 complained of physical abuse.

“Aggressive behaviour, threats and violence are also sometimes utilized during the interrogation, including threats to beat, rape, hold in solitary confinement, electrocute or shoot the minor,” it said.

Only eight of the 200 said they were given access to a lawyer prior to interrogation and just seven had a parent present during questioning.

A source in the IDF Prosecutor’s Office told AFP there was no legal requirement for either a lawyer or a parent to attend questioning; not for Palestinians and not for Israeli suspects.

But a defendant facing trial was provided with legal counsel and the parents had the right to attend court hearings, the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Regarding allegations of threats and physical abuse, he said defendants or their parents were free to make complaints in open court but “almost never” did.

He said the entire interrogation process, conducted in Arabic, was videotaped and the recordings were made available to the defense.

In the report, a copy of which was seen by AFP, MCW said a “significant number of minors” had been arrested during the night in “terrifying military raids on their homes”.

Most children were arrested in areas close to Jewish settlements or to roads used by settlers, which are often a target for children throwing stones.